Ofcom has published the results of a survey that looked at satisfaction with the customer service provided by landline, broadband, mobile and pay TV providers.
The most notable year-on-year improvements were seen in the mobile and pay TV markets: customer satisfaction rose from 67% in 2012 to 75% in 2013 for mobile operators (mainly driven by higher satisfaction from Vodafone customers) and from 69% in 2012 to 77% in 2013 for pay TV.
Levels of satisfaction with customer service are lower for landline and broadband, although these have also seen improvements and are currently 66% for both.
Overall satisfaction with UK mobile services
| |
2009 |
2012 |
2013 |
| O2 |
73% |
76% |
82% |
| Vodafone |
69% |
61% |
77% |
| Three |
63% |
67% |
74% |
| T-Mobile |
67% |
67% |
71% |
| Virgin Mobile |
73% |
64% |
71% |
| Orange |
67% |
65% |
67% |
| Average |
69% |
67% |
75% |
The main reason customers contacted their service provider was to discuss changing their mobile package or service (17% of contacts), with the next most common issue being poor reception or coverage (8% of contacts).
Claudio Pollack, Ofcom’s Consumer Group Director, said “We expect communications providers to deliver high standards of service to their customers. In the event things go wrong, it is important that consumers have peace of mind that their questions or issues will be dealt with in a timely and efficient way by their provider. Our research data gives consumers valuable information about standards of customer service, which can help them when choosing a new service or provider. We also hope this research acts as an incentive to providers to continue to work to improve their customer service and we will be discussing our findings with them.”